By This Is Money Reporters
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10.25: The Footsie climbs a little further, up 22 points now (0.34 per cent) to 6,615.
BT's better-than-expected results have boosted its shares 10 per cent now, up to 304p. Read our full report here.
British Airways parent company International Airlines Group edged lower after reporting a bigger first quarter loss, driven by the poor performance of its Iberia business. Shares were 4.05p lower at 276.45p.
Outside the top flight, Ocado shares jumped 14 per cent after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy and the internet grocer's management said they were encouraged by progress so far this year.
Eye on the ball: BT just announced a free sports deal for broadband customers; its shares have shot up today
The stock, which fell sharply yesterday on fears a distribution deal with Morrisons will fall through, rose by 31.1p to 239.65p to place the stock at the top of the FTSE 250 index.
Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG, said: 'The FTSE has been dragged to new five-year highs by buoyant European markets, which continue to climb.
'In Asia, the Nikkei continues to demonstrate the fine form shown in April, and with US dollar finally breaking the psychological 100 yen level the Japanese index could be set for new highs.
'BT have followed up yesterday?s aggressive pricing policy by posting impressive full-year figures. Many UK armchair sports fans will be hoping that they can instigate a pricing war with Sky. With a host of well-known sports personalities endorsing them, BT will hope to improve their market share of broadband users. However, if BT don?t have the product to back up the hype customers could be hard to hang onto - as both Des Lynam & Setanta will testify.
'The UK high street's banking market could be thrown into fresh chaos after the Co-op's credit rating was slashed by Moody?s overnight. Any lingering hopes the UK government had that the Co-op would acquire its 632 Lloyds branches have now surely dissipated.'
Read more on this here.
08.15: The FTSE 100 has extended its winning run into a seventh straight session, led by telecoms group BT on robust results and with some traders forecasting more market gains to come.
The Footsie was up 14 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 6,607 in early trading, having risen 0.1 per cent yesterday to record its highest close since October 2007.
The UK benchmark has risen around 12 per cent this year as interest rate cuts and injections of liquidity by central banks around the world have lifted equity markets in spite of a stuttering global economy.
'I still think the fundamentals (aren't good enough) to warrant the current stock prices, (but) the central bank intervention has more than offset that,' Nick Xanders, head of European equity strategy at BTIG, said.
'At some point that will give and the fundamentals will matter again, but it isn't today.'
BT jumped 8.5 per cent, rebounding from a 2.3 per cent drop on Thursday, as it raised its outlook after cost cuts and strong consumer demand helped it to beat annual forecasts. Its shares are up 23.5p to 299.2p.
BofA Merrill Lynch, describing BT's results as 'very strong', upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy'.?
08.00: Japanese equities soared to five-and-a-half year highs overnight, with the dollar sailing past the symbolic 100 yen level and beefing up the outlook for corporate Japan, but shares elsewhere in Asia retreated as global equities paused overnight from recent rallies. ?
Financial spreadbetters predicted London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX? would open up as much as 0.2 per cent.
Yesterday the pan-European FTSEurofirst closed flat overnight to stay near five-year highs.
US stock futures were up 0.1 per cent, suggesting a slightly firmer Wall Street open after American stocks slipped from record highs yesterday.
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The dollar was buoyed after Thursday's weekly US data showed initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level in more than five years, following last week's much stronger-than-expected monthly non-farm payrolls report for April.? ?
'What you need to understand about what is going on in the United States is that we're growing, this recovery is real. There may be some bumps, but the fundamental push forward is there,' said Carl Larry, president of the Houston-based Oil Outlook and Opinions.
The yen's resumed downtrend bodes well for Japanese exporters, and expectations of robust earnings drove the Nikkei stock average up 3 per cent to its highest since January 2008.
The index is up 6.4 per cent, on track for its biggest weekly gain since December 2009 when it jumped 10.4 per cent.
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